There are two major types of vehicle door window arrangements. The first arrangement is that of a sedan-type vehicle door. In the sedan-type vehicle door, the door has a channel that extends above the belt level of the door and encloses a glass window pane when the glass window pane is in its top position. A second type of vehicle door is the hard-top vehicle door wherein the glass, after extending from the belt line of the vehicle door, is totally unsupported above the belt line and mates with the weatherstrip along a door opening of the vehicle. In the hard-top design, the stability of the window glass is totally achieved by its connection with the door below the belt line of the vehicle door. The hard-top vehicle door is also used in convertibles and other vehicle body styles.
Many vehicle doors with extendable windows of the hard-top variety have two parallel channels mounted within the interior of the door. A cross arm (as in Lam et al, U.S. Pat. No. 4,924,627), a cable (as in Dupuy, U.S. Pat. No. 5,067,281) or a tape drive (as in Staran et al, U.S. Pat. No. 4,642,941) regulator mechanism is thereafter attached with the vehicle door. Thereafter, the glass window is attached to the channel members via guide blocks to complete the assembly. The various components are then adjusted to ensure the proper fit of the window and to prevent any possible binding in the up and down movement of the window.
To reduce costs, and in an attempt to prevent alignment problems, it is desirable to allow the channel members and regulator mechanism to be assembled into the vehicle door as one pre-assembled unit with the guide blocks already on the channel members.
In Bisnack et al, U.S. Ser. No. 08/412,813, filed Mar. 29, 1995, a modular window regulator system was presented which allowed virtually complete testing of the regulator system for possible binds before installation into the vehicle door. The window regulator of Bisnack et al greatly diminishes any possible binds due to its unique structure. However, the elimination of possible binds presents a problem with inboard and outboard stability. Inboard and outboard stability (or transverse stability) of the glass is mainly noticeable due to rattling of the window glass when the vehicle door is slammed shut. Previously, stability was added to the system due to the inherent binding which was part of the window regulator system. As mentioned previously, with the window regulator of Bisnack et al, a large amount of the binding is eliminated. Therefore, the binding effect due to slight misalignment of the various portions of the window regulator system may no longer be relied upon for transverse stability of the window glass regulator system.